Now that you're gone
by Caz Malfoy
Summary: A CSI has been brutally murdered. Will they catch the killer? TimEric Slash! COMPLETE


"What have we got?" a male voice asked.

Calliegh looked up into the eyes of her supervisor Horatio Caine. "Eric," she replied, her voice wavering slightly as she tried to maintain her professionalism.

Horatio's eye's widened as he looked at her in shock. "Are you sure?" he asked, not wanting to believe what he was hearing.

Calleigh nodded her head solemnly, "Positive," she replied quietly. "Tim said he came by this morning to pick him up and found him - called us straight away," she added.

"Where is he?" Horatio asked, looking around for Speedle but not seeing him.

"He's out back with Alexx," Calleigh told him. "He's pretty distraught about it," she added.

"Understandable," Horatio said, taking his black sunglasses off and hooking them onto his shirt. "They were like best friends," he added, making his way over to the patio doors. He smiled sadly when he saw the Coroner, Alexx, with her arms around Speed. Horatio had never seen Speed cry before and he had hoped that he never would, not at the expense of someone's life anyway.

Horatio turned on his heel and walked towards Eric's bedroom. He had never been to the young CSI's house before and he was in awe at how clean he kept it. Everything was dust free and in it's place – the total opposite of what one would expect from a young man living on his own.

Taking a deep breath to steady himself for what he was about to see, Horatio carefully stepped around the small droplets of blood that were staining an otherwise perfectly clean cream carpet, as he entered his main crime scene.

Lots and lots of blood was Horatio's first thought as he gazed upon the bloody body. If it hadn't been for all the blood Horatio would have just thought that Eric Delko was sleeping peacefully.

"Has the ME been in here?" Horatio asked, sensing Calliegh stepping up beside him.

The blond woman shook her head, "As soon as she found out who the victim was Alexx went to Tim," she told him.

"Has she taken herself off of the case?"

"No," Calliegh replied, shaking her head again. "She refused to let someone else take care of him," she said. "She wanted to make sure everything was done right, for his sake."

"There's no sign of a struggle," Horatio observed, setting his kit down on the floor and retrieving a pair of white gloves. "Which means he was attacked in his sleep."

"What do you think cause of death was?" Calleigh asked, putting some gloves of her own on.

"Well," Horatio said, stepping up to the side of the bed and carefully looking down at Eric's body, "we won't know for certain until Alexx takes a look but there's a small incision here, just above his collar bone," he said, pointing to the small cut.

"Do you think it severed the windpipe?" Calleigh asked.

Horatio looked closer, "It could be," he replied before looking up and seeing Speed stood in the doorway. "Speed," he said quietly. "How are you holding up?" he asked the younger man.

"I holding," Speed replied emotionlessly, looking around the room, staring at everything except Delko's body.

Horatio smiled sympathetically, "I think it would be best if you didn't work on this case," he told Speed.

"What?" Speed exclaimed. "No," he said. "I have to work this," he added.

"Tim," Horatio started, stepping closer to Speed, "I know you want to catch the guy who did this, but your emotions will get in the way and prevent you from seeing all the evidence."

"H, please," Speed pleaded, looking into Horatio's eyes desperately. "Don't do this to me," he said. "I have to be involved in this, I owe it to Eric to find the guy who did this," he added.

Horatio put an arm around Speed's shoulders. "We all owe it to him to find the guy," Horatio replied, "but you were closer to him that the rest of us. Please. Just step aside and let us get him, if not for your sake, for Eric's."

"Tim," Alexx's voice said from behind the CSI as he stood over the microscope, glancing down at DNA samples from an armed robbery that resulted in mass homicide.

"Alexx," Speed greeted her, looking up. "Any news on what… killed him?" he asked, his voice breaking slightly.

"Tim, you know I can't disclose information like that to officers who aren't working on the case," she said softly, the look in her eyes telling him that she wished she could tell him. "But there is one thing I need to ask you before I give my report to Horatio. When did this appear?" she asked, opening a folder and placing a photograph in front of Speed.

Despite the situation Tim found himself smiling at the memory. "Two months ago," he replied. "We were both drunk and on the town. We were on our way back to my apartment when we walked past a tattoo parlour. I mean I drive past it everyday so I wouldn't have really noticed it if we had been sober, but the short and short of it is that we dared each other and both ended up coming out with matching tattoo's."

"Matching tattoo's?" Alexx asked. "Well this one," she pointed to the picture, "says your name on it, so if like you say – they match - yours would say… _his _name on it," she finished.

Speed nodded his head sadly, "Yep, that's right," he replied.

"You do realise that Horatio is going to see this, don't you?" she added, taking the picture back off of him and putting it back in the folder.

Speed's eyes widened as he looked up at her in shock. "What?" he asked. "No! He can't… You can't let him know about that," he pleaded.

"I'm sorry, Tim," Alexx replied sadly, "you know I would take your secret to the grave with me if I could but not telling Horatio about something like this could mean that I'm withholding evidence, which could lose me my job."

"But Horatio can't know about us, not me and Eric. He'll never look at me the same way again," he said, desperately. "He'll hate me," he added.

"Tim," Alexx said, wrapping her arms around him, "you know that Horatio is not the type of person to do that. He lost his brother, he knows what it's like to lose someone close to him, he'll be able to help you get through this," she whispered in his ear.

"But," Speed started to argue but Alexx placed a finger gently over his lips.

"Tim," she whispered, "you know what you have to do," she told him.

"I can't," he said.

Alexx nodded her head, "Yes you can," she insisted. "Take this to Horatio and tell him why Eric has a tattoo of a motorbike with your name inscribed on it," she instructed handing him the report folder.

"How do you know I'm not going to destroy anything in here that relates to us?" he asked, glancing down at the file in his hands.

Alexx smiled at him and kissed him gently on the forehead, "Because you know that destroying evidence is not the way to way to go. Besides, that," she added, "I trust you."

"Hey, H!" Speed called, jogging slightly to catch up with the CSI supervisor.

Horatio turned on his heel to face Speed, allowing him to catch up with him before continuing walking towards his office, with Speed following alongside him.

"How are you coping?" Horatio asked softly, glancing at Speed out of the corner of his eye.

"Better than before I think," he replied, entering Horatio's office with him. "I just came to give you this," Speed added, holding out the file that Alexx had given him to pass on – true to his word he had not looked through the file to find out what had killed Eric, knowing that when the time was right someone would tell him the truth.

"This is Eric's autopsy report," Horatio said, more to himself than Speed as he glanced down at the file that was now in his hands. "What are you doing with this? You've been taken off the case," he added, clearly thinking that Speed had taken it upon himself to look into the case.

Speed nodded his head, "I know," he replied. "And I haven't looked at anything in there, I swear, H. But there is something I need to tell you before you have a look."

Horatio nodded his head, sitting down at his desk before motioning for Speed to do the same. Nervously, Speed sat down and took a deep breath before starting his story.

"There's something about Eric that you don't know, H," he said so quietly that Horatio had to lean forwards slightly to be able to hear what he was saying.

Speed leant across the desk and pulled the photo that Alexx had shown him out of the file. "This is what," he told Horatio, pushing the picture across the desk towards the older man.

"It's a tattoo," Horatio said, picking up a magnifying glass and holding it over the picture of a yellow bike. "A tattoo of a motorbike with the name Tim Speedle written on it," he added, setting the glass down and looking across the desk at Speed. "You two were more than just friends, weren't you?" Horatio asked.

Speed nodded his head, "Yeah, we were," he whispered, tears starting to stream out of the corner of his eyes no matter how hard he tried to stop them.

"How long?" Horatio asked softly, standing up and moving around the desk to sit next to Speed.

Speed shook his head and turned around from Horatio for a second before looking back, "Eighteen months next week," he replied. "We didn't tell anyone cos we wanted to keep everything separate. You know, work and home?" he added. "It doesn't mean we didn't _want_ to tell you guys, we were actually planning on telling you all at some point, but it just never seemed like the right time."

"Did Alexx know before this?" Horatio asked, pointing at the picture.

Speed nodded his head, "Yeah," he whispered. "Me and Eric were in the lab one time, it was real early so no one was hardly in, and Alexx came by to drop off a report and caught us red handed," he added, chuckling at the memory of Alexx's expression.

"Was Eric the only one brave enough to have a tattoo?" Horatio asked curiously, looking at the picture.

Speed shook his head, "No," he told him. "I don't think I would have had to courage to get one if I had been sober but I was drunk so I didn't think about the pain factor. Neither of us knew what the other was going to get, we went into separate cubicles and both came out at the same time. Turns out we more or less had the same idea," Speed said, standing up and unbuttoning his shirt enough so he could slip it off his shoulder and show Horatio the top of his back, revealing a blue and silver motorbike with Eric Delko written in silver around the tyre trim. "It was obvious I was going to get a motorbike, even drunk I love them. But I didn't realise that he would want one as well," he added, pulling his shirt back on and fastening the buttons again.

"Tim," Horatio said, putting his hand on Speed's arm, "I really am sorry he got attacked," he said sincerely. "And I'm sorry for taking you off the case, but I still think it's for the best that you don't have anything to do with it," he added.

Speed nodded his head, "There's something else I haven't told you, which is more drastic than not telling you about us," he whispered, even more nervous now than before.

Horatio looked at him in surprise, "What?" he asked.

"When I told you that I went to Eric's house to pick him up for work, I lied," he admitted.

"Lied about what?"

"I was already at his house," Speed said. "I spent the night. That's why you'll probably find my hair and DNA in his bed. I know it was stupid of me not to tell you and put myself in an even more compromising position but I didn't think I could deal with anyone knowing that while my boyfriend was being killed, I slept like a baby," he whispered, closing his eyes and putting his head in his hands.

"Did you wake up at all during the night?" Horatio asked and Speed shook his head. Horatio bit his lip in thought, "Would you be okay giving us a sample of your blood?" he asked eventually.

"My blood?" Speed asked, paling at the thought of needles. "Why my blood? Wouldn't a DNA swab be enough?" he asked.

Horatio shook his head, "Not for what I'm looking for, it doesn't show up in your DNA," he added.

Speed nodded his head, rather reluctantly agreeing to give Horatio his blood sample. "What are you looking for?" he asked.

"I'll tell you when I find it," Horatio replied. "You realise you'll have to make a statement about what you know happened that night and morning, don't you?" Horatio asked softly.

Speed sighed and nodded his head, "I know," he murmured. "Aren't you mad at me for lying in a murder investigation?" he asked hesitantly.

Horatio shook his head, "I'm disappointed that you thought you couldn't trust me with something like this, but I'm not mad. I understand that in the heat of the moment we all do things that we don't mean to and we're not proud of. But just promise to tell me something like this in future, okay?" he asked.

Speed smiled at Horatio in thanks for being so understanding and nodded his head, "I will do, H," he agreed.

"So we have physical evidence and DNA that can put Speed in Eric's bed at the time of death and we even have Speed's DNA underneath Eric's fingernails, which means that they struggled," Calleigh said. "I hate to say this but doesn't that make him our number one suspect?" she asked.

Horatio shook his head, continuing to look through his microscope, "Not when he was unconscious at the time," he replied.

"But you said, and his statement backs you up, that he wasn't unconscious. He was just fast asleep," Calleigh said.

"When you get drugged it feels like you just fall into a deep sleep," Horatio told her. "When, in fact, you're actually in a coma-like state."

"You think Speed was drugged?" Calleigh asked disbelievingly.

Horatio shook his head, "I don't think so," he admitted. "His blood is proving it to me. There's some kind of drug that's filtering it's way through his blood stream, that's why he had such a good sleep the night Eric was killed and it also explains why he didn't hear any noise or feel anything and wake up."

"So someone drugged him so that he wouldn't wake up?" Calleigh asked and Horatio nodded his head. "Why didn't the killer go after him next?"

"I don't think the killer was after Speed," Horatio replied. "Let's go back to Eric's place, see if we can find out who would be after him and not Speed."

"You know," Calleigh spoke up, her southern drawl echoing off the walls of Eric's house. "This is actually a really nice house," she commented. "Much better than Speed's."

"When did you go to Speed's house?" Horatio asked, softly closing the door behind him.

"When we went out dancing," Calleigh admitted.

"You all make me feel so old," Horatio complained, walking around the living room.

Calleigh laughed, "You're not _that _old," she said in an attempt to comfort him. "It's just because we're so much younger than you," she added.

"Yeah because that makes me feel so much better," Horatio remarked sarcastically, picking up a swimming trophy. "Did you know that Eric competed in swimming competitions?" he asked.

Calleigh shook her head, "No," she replied, stepping up behind him and looking at the trophy. "First place," she read off of the plaque. "I knew he liked swimming but I didn't know he was that good."

"Looks like our little Delko was hiding quite a few talents from us," Horatio remarked, putting the trophy down and looking at the rest of the shelf. There were dozens of swimming trophies, a couple of diving certificates and even a ballroom dancing blue ribbon.

"They must have been drunk when they won that," Calleigh remarked, pointing to Speed's name that was underneath Eric's.

"How'd you figure that?" Horatio asked.

"You've never seen Tim dance have you?" she replied, laughing to herself. "He couldn't do ballroom dancing if his life depended on it. What exactly are we looking for?" she asked a few seconds later, stepping away from the shelf.

"Anything out of the ordinary that we might not have noticed before," Horatio replied. "There was no sign of forced entry was there?" he asked, glancing at the wooden frame around the door. "So how did our killer get in here?"

"Maybe Eric left a door open and the killer closed it on his way out?" Calleigh suggested.

"But what good would that do?" Horatio asked, walking up the stairs.

Calleigh shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know," she replied. "To make it look like Speed killed Eric," she suggested.

Horatio shook his head, "I don't think that was the killers intention," he said. "I don't think whoever did this wanted Tim to take the fall for this."

"Well then why would someone kill one of them but not the other?"

"Have you ever heard of the phrase Jealousy kills?" Horatio asked, stopping at the top of the stairs and looking up at the trap door that led into the loft.

Calleigh nodded her head, "You think that someone killed Eric because they were jealous about him and Tim?"

Horatio nodded his head before looking at her in surprise, "How did you know that?"

"Tim's hair and DNA in Eric's bed," Caleigh checked off on her hand. "It's doesn't take a genius to realise why he was here," she added. "Besides, I think it's kind of cute," she told him smiling dreamily to herself.

Horatio shook his head, "I don't want to know," he muttered to himself, pushing the loft door up and allowing a ladder to drop down. "But I think I do know how our killer got in and out undetected."

"We won't get no footsteps from the rungs though," she said. "They're too narrow," she added.

"But we might get finger prints from the side," Horatio continued, getting his kit out and beginning to dust one side of the ladder.

"Well, what do you know?" Calleigh said to herself. "There two sets of prints on here," she told Horatio. "I'm assuming one set is Eric's but the other one, I don't know," she added.

"Well find out soon hopefully," Horatio said, making sure they managed to get clear lifts of both sets of prints.

"Let's see if our killer left anything behind up here," Horatio said, carefully climbing up the ladder and shining his flashlight into the dark loft.

"I definitely know how he managed to get in here," Horatio said, glancing at the tiny window that was on the far end of the room. "There's a window up there," he told Calleigh, climbing back down the ladder.

"Let's leave everything here like it and go check outside," Calleigh suggested.

"Well this definitely confirms that our killer used a ladder to get in through the loft window," Calleigh said, crouching down next to the two dints that were in the grass directly underneath the window. "What I don't get is how come we've got two sets of finger prints on the ladder to the loft but there was only Eric and Tim's prints on the bedroom door handle."

Horatio frowned a little before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his cell. "Speed," he greeted when the ringing was answered. "The night Eric was killed, can you remember if you shut the bedroom door before going to bed?" he asked. After a pause he added, "Thanks," and snapped the phone closed.

"That explains why there were no finger prints," Calleigh said. "He walked in through an open door."

"It would look that way, yes," Horatio said. "But I think we can find something that proves this wasn't spontaneous, but instead was planned properly."

"Like what?" Calleigh asked, following Horatio into the house to the kitchen.

Horatio didn't answer he question as he looked around the kitchen. "This house is perfectly tidy, everything is in its place, nothing is left out," he said. "Yet there are still glasses left out over here," Horatio added. "That seems a little out of place," he remarked, reaching into the trashcan and pulling out a wine bottle. "Especially when they had chance to throw the empty bottle away."

"You think that they wanted to go to bed so much that they forgot to put them in the dishwasher?" Calleigh asked, holding the evidence bag out for Horatio to slide the two glasses into.

Horatio shrugged his shoulders, "It looks like that way doesn't it?" he asked.

"Thank god for Speed's untidy tendencies," Calleigh added.

"I need to head back to the office to check these for fingerprints," Horatio told her.

Calleigh nodded her head, "I'm going to stay here and check the loft out for any sign of forced entry up there," she told him.

"Tim," Horatio said, looking across the table towards Speed. "I am really sorry to do this but I need to ask you some questions about what happened the night that Eric died."

Speed took a deep breath and smiled slightly as Calleigh slipped her hand into his supportively, before he nodded his head. "Okay," he whispered.

"Does this look familiar to you?" Horatio asked, sliding a picture of the wine bottle across the table so Speed could see it.

Speed looked at it carefully before he nodded his head, "Yeah," he replied. "Someone left it in reception for Eric," Speed told them. "I think it was his cousin. He doesn't… didn't like that label so I ended up drinking it and Eric opened a bottle of his favourite, why?"

"So Eric didn't have any of this?" Horatio asked and Speed shook his head. "We found two glasses on the sideboard in Eric's house," Horatio explained at Speed's puzzled look. "We tested them both and one of them had this wine it in. We also found in your blood and in the wine bottle, traces of a very powerful date rape drug. And if Eric didn't drink any of this wine it explains why we didn't find the drug in his blood."

"I was drugged?" Speed asked sounding stunned.

Horatio nodded his head. "There was also your DNA underneath his fingernails," he added. "Have you got any scratches that you didn't have when you fell asleep?"

Speed sighed and nodded his head, standing up and lifting his shirt slightly to reveal scratches on his left hand side and on his torso. "We didn't see any sign on a struggle in the actual house but it looks like when Eric was stabbed he reached out and grabbed you. The dose you were given was six times stronger than a usual date rape pill so it explains why you didn't feel or hear anything during the night," he explained. "You can't feel bad about not waking up and stopping this happening, this wasn't your fault."

"I think we're getting somewhere," Calleigh said excitedly, walking into the lab where Horatio was. "The window in the loft was forced open and there are definite groves from a chisel. There were prints on the sill and they match the ones that were on both the bottle and the ladder coming down from the loft."

"We have a match on the finger prints that were on the ladder," Horatio told her when she had finished.

"We do?" she asked. "Why didn't you tell me before?" she added.

"I didn't want to interrupt," Horatio said smiling at her. "Glenn Leech," he told her.

"The receptionist?" she asked and Horatio nodded his head. "How on Earth would he know about them when not even we did and we worked with him?"

"Why don't we go and ask him?"

"Mr Leech," Horatio said, pacing from one side of the room to the other, "can you tell us what you were doing in Eric Delko's loft three nights ago?"

Gleen stared at Horatio dumb founded. "I- I don't know what you're talking about," he stammered.

"I think, Mr Leech," Horatio said, sitting down and leaning forward, pressing his fingers together in front of his face. "That you do," he added. "We have forensic evidence that places you in Delko's loft the day that he was killed and we can also match the chisel that was in your garage to the laceration in his chest that severed his windpipe and killed him. So would you like to try again?" he asked.

"I didn't want to," Leech said after a few minutes of staring at Horatio. "He made me do it," he added.

"How exactly does a crime scene investigator make you kill him?" Horatio asked, beginning to loose his cool and get mad.

"Flaunting his relationship with Tim," Leech said. "Yeah sure no one knew about them here but I knew, you could tell by the look in their eyes. Every time they passed each other. Every time they spoke. They were rubbing it in my face."

"Why would they do something like that?" Horatio asked.

Leech grinned, "Tim knew how much I wanted him, he was just using Delko to get to me."

Horatio opened a case file and pulled the photo of Eric's tattoo out, the one piece of evidence that seemed to have used the most. "Does this look like they were just using each other?" he asked, throwing the picture across the desk at Leech.

Leech pulled a face and shoved the picture back towards Horatio. "Just because Delko had one doesn't mean that Tim felt the same way. I know he really wanted me and was using Delko."

"So you decided to get rid of Eric so that Tim would come running into your arms?" Horatio guessed.

"It was a foolproof plan," Leech replied. "Once Delko was out of the way, Tim would realise what a fool he'd been and come to me," he added.

Horatio cracked a menacing smile, "I think you'll find, Mr Leech," he said as the door opened and a uniformed officer entered, "that the only fool around here has been you. Because instead of you getting to live happily ever after with Tim, you're going on death row for killing an officer of the law."

The sun was shining bright as Horatio stepped out of the hummer, the sunlight glistening off of his trademark sunglasses.

"Hey, H!" Speed's voice said as he stepped up behind the CSI supervisor.

"Hey, Tim," Horatio replied. "How are you?"

"Good, surprisingly," he said, moving so that he was stood alongside the taller man. "Considering the circumstances."

Horatio nodded his head, "A lot of people turned up," he observed, looking around at all the people that were congregating in the cemetery.

Speed nodded his head, "Yeah," he agreed. "It's amazing how you don't realise you knew so many people until you die."

"Are you boys going to stand here all day chatting?" a southern drawl asked from behind them and they turned around to face Calleigh.

"We were having a quiet moment until some southern weirdo interrupted us," Speed joked.

Calleigh smiled, "Glad to hear you say that," she replied. "It's nice to know you're getting back to normal," she added, hooking her right arm through Speed's and her left through Horatio's.

Speed smiled at her, "Yeah," he said softly. "I know. I don't think Eric would want me to spend all my time moping. I know he'd want me to get back to my old self and get on with work like normal."

"Yeah, he would," Calleigh whispered, as they all made their way towards the spot where Eric was about to be buried.

The End


End file.
